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Overview

Aeneas flees the ashes of Troy to found the city of Rome and change forever the course of the Western world--as literature as well. Virgil's Aeneid is as eternal as Rome itself, a sweeping epic of arms and heroism--the searching portrait of a man caught between love and duty, human feeling and the force of fate--that has influenced writers for over 2,000 years. Filled with drama, passion, and the universal pathos that only a masterpiece can express. The Aeneid is a book for all the time and all people.

"Allen Mandelbaum has produced a living Aeneid, a version that is unmistakably poetry." -- Erich Segal, The New York Times Book Review

"A brilliant translation; the only one since Dryden which reads like English verse and conveys some of the majesty and pathos of the original." -- Bernard M. W. Knox

"Mandelbaum has... given us a contemporary experience of the masterpiece, at last." -- David Ignatow

Virgil's great epic transforms the Homeric tradition into a triumphal statement of the Roman civilizing mission.

What People Are Saying

J. M. Coetzee

Robert Fagles gives the full range of Virgil's drama, grandeur, and pathos in vigorous, supple modern English. It is fitting that one of the great translators of The Iliad and The Odyssey in our times should also emerge as a surpassing translator of The Aeneid.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Editorial Reviews

The New Yorker

Fagles's new version of Virgil's epic delicately melds the stately rhythms of the original to a contemporary cadence. . . . He illuminates the poem's Homeric echoes while remaining faithful to Virgil's distinctive voice.

The New York Times Book Review

A new and noble standard bearer . . . There's a capriciousness to Fagles's line well suited to this vast story's ebb and flow.

Library Journal

Ahl (classics & comparative literature, Cornell Univ.) has previously published translations of Seneca's and Lucan's works and has written books on Sophocles, Lucan, and Ovid. His new translation of this great Latin classic, Virgil's tale of Aeneas's seven-year journey from Troy to Italy, joins recent efforts by Stanley Lombardo (Hackett, 2005) and Robert Fagles (Penguin, 2006). Here, Ahl employs a version of Virgil's hexameter verse, in which the first syllable is accented. Unlike previous translators, he tries to capture some of Virgil's wordplay, puns, and anagrams, aiming to remain true to the original Latin. The overall results are accurate but not as fluent or vigorous as the translations by Lombardo and Fagles. While those translations remain the first choice for general readers interested mainly in The Aeneid's narrative aspects, Ahl's translation is good for those wanting a fuller sense of Virgil's language and poetic artistry. In addition to an indexed glossary of names, Ahl includes notes explaining references; classicist Elaine Fantham offers a substantial introduction discussing Virgil, Aeneas, and The Aeneid. Recommended for all public and academic libraries.
—T.L. Cooksey

From the Publisher

"Fitzgerald's is so decisively the best modern Aeneid that it is unthinkable that anyone will want to use any other version for a long time to come."—New York Review of Books

"From the beginning to the end of this English poem...the reader will find the same sure control of English rhythms, the same deft phrasing, and an energy which urges the eye onward."—The New Republic

"A rendering that is both marvelously readable and scrupulously faithful.... Fitzgerald has managed, by a sensitive use of faintly archaic vocabulary and a keen ear for sound and rhythm, to suggest the solemnity and the movement of Virgil's poetry as no previous translator has done (including Dryden).... This is a sustained achievement of beauty and power."—Boston Globe

Related Subjects

Meet the Author

Publius Vergilius Maro (70-19 B.C.), known as Virgil, was born near Mantua in the last days of the Roman Republic. In his comparatively short life he became the supreme poet of his age, whose Aeneid gave the Romans a great national epic equal to the Greeks’, celebrating their city’s origins and the creation of their empire. Virgil is also credited with authoring two other major works of Latin literature, the Eclogues and the Georgics.

Robert Fagles (1933-2008) was Arthur W. Marks ’19 Professor of Comparative Literature, Emeritus, at Princeton University. He was the recipient of the 1997 PEN/Ralph Manheim Medal for Translation and a 1996 Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. His translations include Sophocles’s Three Theban Plays, Aeschylus’s Oresteia (nominated for a National Book Award), Homer’s Iliad (winner of the 1991 Harold Morton Landon Translation Award by The Academy of American Poets), Homer’s Odyssey, and Virgil's Aeneid.

Bernard Knox (1914-2010) was Director Emeritus of Harvard’s Center for Hellenic Studies in Washington, D.C. He taught at Yale University for many years. Among his numerous honors are awards from the National Institute of Arts and Letters and the National Endowment for the Humanities. His works include The Heroic Temper: Studies in Sophoclean Tragedy, Oedipus at Thebes: Sophocles’ Tragic Hero and His Time and Essays Ancient and Modern (awarded the 1989 PEN/Spielvogel-Diamonstein Award).

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The star rating is arbitrary...read on.

Just so we're all clear: the following customer reviews address different translations, not the Hackett publication on this page. I haven't read Lombardo's translation of the Aeneid, but I have read some of his translations of other texts and they were great...His voice is very modern and readable.

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

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Anonymous

Posted December 13, 2000

This review refers to the translation by C.H. Sisson.

As you can see, there are many translations of The Aeneid out there. Most are in paperback, some are in hardcover. I first read The Aeneid from a second-hand paperback book, and years later decided to buy a hardcover translation to put on my bookshelf between my Homer and Horace hardcovers. Given only meager descriptions of The Aeneid hardcovers available from B&N, I more or less blindly chose the translation by C.H. Sisson. The book was advertised as having been published in 1995, but the book itself gave a copywright of 1986. The introduction is barely five pages long, and there are no notes or illustrations or a glossary. The dust jacket is rust in color and rather plain. The dimensions of the book itself is: 8 3/4' tall, 5 3/4' wide, and about 1 1/8' thick. I found the book to be smaller than my other hardcovers, which for some reason bothers me. I hope this description helps you, the potential buyer, in making your decision, as I wish I had this information when I selected. Book stores on the web are great, even superior to 'real' stores in many aspects, but sometimes we need more than just a photo (if we even have that)and non-descriptive info, especially when the only reviews are applied to every translation of a classical work. You may be thinking this reviewer needs to stop worrying about the sizes of books and get out of the house more. But for some of us, we want to know what a book looks like, to find the most attractive copy of a literary classic to place on our bookshelves. You know who you are. The bottom line, however, is whether you get this translation, a worn-out paperback edition, a book from a library, or any other competent translation of Virgil's masterpiece, you will have a great work to read and enjoy. And you get a longer bang for your buck if it looks good on your bookshelf after you finish it.

1 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

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Anonymous

Posted February 18, 2015

Dagorain's Bio

Name ~ Dagorain <br>Species ~ A Hurrok from Tamora Pierce's The Immortals series.<br>Gender ~ &male<br>Rank ~ Lord of the Razor Tribe ( hurrok tribe ) <p>Appearance ~ He looks like a white horse with large black eagle wings. Long, black mane and tail. Talons instead of hooves with cruel, curved claws, which he sharpens to a deadly point at the tips. Bloodred, forward-facing eyes with round pupils. Hidden are long, sharp fangs. Carnivorous and foul-smelling. Deafening, bloodcurdling screeches and screams.<p>Personality ~ Go find out, if you dare.<br>Weapons and skills ~ Talons, fangs, venom in canines, powerful bite, strong kicking force, can create a powerful shockwave in front or behind himself using his in-born magic. Terrifyingly swift and agile in air, and able to easily slip out from between tangles of dragons because of his relatively small size ( size of a regular horse minus the wings )<p>Other ~ Find out yourself<p>~ D&alpha<_>g&sigma&pi&alpha&iota<_>n

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Anonymous

Posted February 15, 2015

A red liquid

Removed one of Xtoski's scalds.

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Anonymous

Posted January 23, 2015

Twilight and Zayele's Bio.

Name Twilight <p> Gender female <p> Personality meet me <p> Appearance the upper part of her body is a dark blue that grafually fades to purple and the purple fades to a pink. Her horns and spines are a dark blue. She has light blue eyes. <p> Crush: been watching him for a very long time which for her means whn the war started. And im not tellin no one. <p> Name Zayele <p> Gender Female. <p> Personality Meet me <p> Appearance Waist length black hair with a silver and purple streak in it. Slim body and pale skin. Blue eyes. Pointed ears. Silver and purple dragon wings that also have flecks of black on them. Nornaly wears a silver and purple graphic tshirt with a raven on it, black jeans skinny jeans with a silver braided belt and silver and black gladiator snadals with dark purple jewels on them. <p> Spieces half dragon half elf. <p>Anything else but history ask!!

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Anonymous

Posted January 26, 2015

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Anonymous

Posted January 8, 2015

Fallenblood's Bio

Name :: Fallenblood<br>Age :: 500 years<br>Gender :: &male<br>Type :: Shadow dragon.<br>Appearance :: A large black-scaled dragon with shadowy wings and white irises, his midnight pupils a deep contrast to the iris. His teeth are curved inwards, serrated, as well as his claws.<br>Dragonets :: Blackfeather<br>Mate :: None, was once an ampithere.<br>Other :: Ask.

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Xtoski

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Anonymous

Posted January 8, 2015

Terroz

Name: Terroz <p> Gender: male <br> Apearance: blue with a red spine and a red streak on his forehead.

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Anonymous

Posted December 22, 2014

Sadie

Sits down and waigs. And thinks. And cries.

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Anonymous

Posted December 5, 2014

Ignore the figure

Okay

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Anonymous

Posted November 28, 2014

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Anonymous

Posted November 27, 2014

Blaze bio

Looks...brown and white calico she cat with amber eyes...Personality...kind loyal and secretive...Age...unknown to anyone but herself...Crush...also unknown to anyone but herself...mate/kits...nada...Other...just ask..she might claw your ears off if you push her around too much. Just fyi.( :

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Anonymous

Posted November 27, 2014

Maroons Biography

Name: wait a sec. Who cares?

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Ebony's Nicknames (New Edition! Coolyo!)

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Anonymous

Posted November 25, 2014

Bio of the mighty Toxic

Name: *blank stare* <p> Age: 6 moons (random fact about the number six; it comes after the number five, and you can add up may different numbers to make it! Examples: 2 + 4, 3 + 3) <p> Gender &male and I am NOT gonna prove it. Perv. <p> Looks: shaggy white pelt, with coal black stripes on each of his legs, and three, count 'em, three horizontal gray stripes the run along his back, starting at his shoulders and ending at the base of his tail. His eyes are a bright, kingly violet, with darker violet speckles. <p> Personality: natural born leader, bold, sometimes sarcastic (okay, a lot of the time), and full of courage. Always up for any adventure and will dive into danger head-on without looking back. <p> Family: Seven (mother), Virus (father), Vitani (sister), Savvy (sister), Serval (brother), Toxin (grandfather). <p> Friends: well I just got here, but... I'd definitely say that Seven and Swift (Swufteh I'm sorreh! I promised I'd only ever call you by your nickname, but I lied :3) are my two best friends here. I hope to add to this list and include each and every one of you :D <p> <br> Baiii for now! *huggles and throws around white fundip* #Glosseh4ever #feedme

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